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I Got Crabs!!

I’m talking about crabbing! I’ve always eaten crabs at chinese restaurants, which are either lightly battered then fried or cooked in a wok with green onions, garlic, and ginger or at buffets where the legs are always long and thin and take a lot of work to get the meat out. It’s crabbing season so it was time to take the nets out and eat freshly caught crab, which is so much tastier.

Going crabbing with a small group of friends is so much fun. Bring some snacks and some brewskies, crack jokes with each other, and meet some new people along the way.

One evening, we decided to go crabbing so we loaded up the truck with five nets, bought some bait, then headed on over to the pier. To our surprise, there were many people already there with their fishing lines and crab traps. We setup next to two guys who had already caught eight good sized crabs with their one net and we knew we were going to be double fisting crabs on the way home, especially with five nets.

At the end of the night, we had caught just seven crabs and those guys caught twelve! We kept picking up pregnant crabs, which aren’t allowed to be kept. By the time we got back home, it was already 11pm, but we wanted to eat these crabs as fresh as possible! We busted out the pots and pans and started to clean the crabs. They were feisty! I wish I had taken a picture of them grabbing each other while they were bathing in the sink.

As we were scrubbing them, we’d place them on the floor because we didn’t want to put them back into the dirty bucket. Look at their claws, ready to clip! Unfortunately, a friend got pinched by an abnormally flexible crab. Just for that, the water was already boiling and it was time to put these guys into the pot.

Throw the crabs into a pot of boiling water and ginger. The purpose of the ginger is to cancel the “ocean taste” out. At least that’s what us Chinese people do. Wait until the water comes back up to a boil and let the crabs boil for about seven minutes per average pound of the crab. In other words, don’t add the total amount of weight of all the crabs.

When they’re done, run them under cool water so they can be handled with. Pull the apron back (the flap on it’s underside) then stick your thumb into the hole and gently, but firmly disconnect the top shell with the bottom portion of its body. Set the top shell aside and start cleaning the other part where its legs are intact. Rip off the gills and break the crab in half.

In a small pot, melt half a cup of butter then turn the heat off. Throw about 4 large cloves of minced garlic into the butter and a pinch of salt in. Stir. Dip the sweet crab meat into the butter. Many people love to eat the insides of the crab, so grab a spoon and scoop the creamy stuff out! Bon Appetit!